I recently gave a cheese kit to some friends in Austin. I was staying with them and since they’re entrepreneurial foodie types I thought they’d enjoy one. They did, but they soon asked for a demo and offered me the assistance of their three kids!! Gulp. Ranging from 9-2 years old…a challenge to say the least.

I was concerned that one, it would be too passive of an activity…step one, let’s watch milk heat up slowly…my other concern was that when we got to the stretching part they’d burn themselves.

Well, I’m happy to say that they remained pretty much interested (though the two year-old “multi-tasked” in other rooms halfway through) and we did indeed end up with mozzarella that they all took to school the next day :). As a bonus, no one burned themselves though we did sacrifice a good stretch for that bonus! Here we are hard at work, note my concerned look!

ps. Ideally I’d start kids with queso blanco- although it is not as hands-on, it’s faster, fool proof and does not involved dunking your hands into super hot water or stretching curds! check out my recipes section

shaping mozzarella into balls…at a lower temp than usual but still good! 🙂

draining some of that extra water…almost done…he was very dedicated!

testing for salt, adding more and more and more…uh oh.

one of the first drainings of warm water, had to add it a couple time since it was not as hot as usual